Young scientists put to test

STONE RIDGE — Saturday was a day of trial and error for many who competed at the Science Olympiad regional competition at SUNY Ulster.

Michael Novinson

STONE RIDGE — Saturday was a day of trial and error for many who competed at the Science Olympiad regional competition at SUNY Ulster.

Josh Kerwin and Miles DuBois knew their robotic device would need to be faster and stronger this year to succeed in the robot arm, a test of how quickly and accurately teams can use a remote-controlled device to move nails, pencils, tubes and pingpong balls into various cartons.

So the Onteora juniors swapped an electromagnet for a gripping magnet, but that didn't provide as strong of a grip as they would have liked.

"When it clicks," Kerwin said, "it's not gripping."

Still, two pencils and two tubes were good enough for fifth place out of 15 in the event.

Junior David Lonstein and sophomore Joe Smith didn't have similar fortune in the boomilever, which tests how much weight can be held by a wood and glue structure.

The structure for the Ellenville team snapped as soon as the bucket was attached.

"We had no idea what we were doing," Lonstein said.

They beat just one of the 19 teams competing in the event.

The problems started for Chris Brighton and Alex Gutwillig as soon as they put their vehicle on the scale. It was 70 grams above the limit.

They were competing in gravity vehicle, which tests how quickly and accurately teams can use a ramp to get their vehicle to a target point.

The Valley Central seniors drilled a giant hole in the center of their vehicle just minutes before competing, getting it to one gram below the limit.

The last-minute move made the vehicle somewhat asymmetrical, affecting its balance. They finished 10th out of 19 teams in the event.

The Mount Academy students peppered the judge with technical questions and had a high-powered fan attached to their vehicle. They were competing in magnetic levitation, which tests how quickly a battery-powered vehicle can move down a magnetic track.

"Holy cow," "whoa" audience members exclaimed as their vehicle zoomed by, covering .9 meters in just .53 seconds. That was the best of any of the 16 teams in the event.

"It went pretty well," Alexander said afterward, "just like we expected."